So you have made you character, filled out the template, and gotten it approved. You have also chosen your jutsu, studied them, and know what it is that they do. Now you are ready to enter your first fight. There are some things you should know, however, before you charge into a fight. There is a saying that goes "knowledge is power." That is entirely the case here. It would be most unfortunate to run into a fight without knowing everything there is to know, or at least as much as is possible, about your opponent. It can be the difference between life and death. But enough with the general intro to the guide on combat and fighting. Within this topic, you will find the rules on large, important things, as well as the smaller, and yet just as important things. Large names such as metagaming and god-modding will come up and be explained, as well as statistics, amounts, and limits. Read up. Have fun. Don't die.

The Big NamesMetagaming & Godmodding Explained

Just like with any institution, there are always a set amount of big, major rules that must be followed and that are enforced more heavily than others. On this forum, these big rules are the rules surrounding metagaming and god-modding. Below each will be described. Do. Not. Under. Any. Circumstances. Break. These. Rules.

Metagaming:

In the past, metagamming has been an ongoing problem also. If you're not familiar with the term, it is when you use out-of-character knowledge to influence motives, events, behaviour, etc. within the in-character playing field. It is not logical for out-of-character experiences to have an impact on what goes on with your character and/or others' characters. There is no justification, at all, for metagamming on Naruto Universe and it will not be tolerated. Anyone that is reported metagamming or caught doing so will be dealt with accordingly.

Metagaming:

In a Standard RP Context:

A character tricking a medusa to stare at a mirror when the character has never even heard of medusas and should not be aware of their petrifying stare

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In a Naruto RP Context:

Having your character avoid eye contact with an Uchiha possessing MS when there is no logical in game reason they would know about the abilities and thus know to avoid it.

You find character mourning at the memorial stone and who is currently questioning whether she has what it takes to be a ninja. She lost her mother when she was just two. You character is unaware of this but you have read her character sheet and so know. Your character walks up to her to reassure her she’s a great Ninja and that her mother would be proud of her.

Your character knowing about a secret Anbu mission in progress when he is just a genin.

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Metagaming makes the RP less immersive and your characters actions less believable, in extreme cases it can be as bad as god-modding, being used to evade things your character wouldn’t have or acquire things he wouldn’t logically have access too.

It’s not the worse problem out there or even totally unacceptable it’s just nice to be aware of. Most metagaming is incidental and as such completely understandable but its best to try and avoid it wear possible. Here are a few pointers:

It’s always a good idea to read the character sheets of individuals you meet in because people generally work hard to produce them, they tend to be interesting and enjoyable and you will connect with the characters more easily and enjoy the RP all the more. However with regard to what your character knows about them the base assumption is absolutely nothing. Much like when you meet someone in real life for the first time you know next to nothing about them. From this base you take into account your characters rank, country, prior social interaction and what he has learned in RP to form what you know.

Always bare you rank in mind when considering what your character would know of others or on matters. A genin’s knowledge would be limited to some basic jutsu, whatever he has picked up on mission, knowledge on his own clan relative to his rank, non sensitive info on the academy and his country and knowledge of his fellow peers (though not specific). The Hokage on the other hand will know or have access to a great many things on a wide range of matters, from who the cleans the toilets at the hospital to the true nature of Konoha’s Kekkai Genkai and who the present holders of the villages summoning contracts.

Your country/village should likewise be bared in mind. Villages are by nature very secretive and anything more then common knowledge would be hard for outsiders to come by.

Personal histories should nearly always be considered unknown to anyone but the parties involved unless revealed by the character in question during RP. Bare in mind though that anything done in an official capacity is likely to be recorded and known to ones superiors. Also you may have been watched, though this is very unlikely unless there are good grounds for it.

Clan knowledge, Jutsu, Special abilities and Kekkai Genkai fall into an interesting category. On the one hand many Clans are quite famous and basic information about the abilities and techs is widely spread. Unless your clan is particularly obscure or has very few members it should be assumed that the chances are that some basics concerning you clan’s tech is known. However at the same time the techs themselves especially high level techs are very closely guarded secrets and their true nature is likely to be known by a few people. A good example would be the Uchiha Clan. Most people in Konoha and even beyond are probably aware of their red eyes and some of its basic functions but MS itself will only be known to a select group of people. Not even an Uchiha Genin is likely to be aware of techniques like Susunoo.

Remember that the RP does not follow Cannon and that none of the Cannon characters are existed with relation to it. What we know about rare techs, kkg and special abilities that came out over it may not be known. Using Deidara as an example if someone was to create an Akatsuki character with his abilities and a similar profile, then any Konoha Nin who encountered him would be unaware of his capabilities even though we know them all. In a RP sense his abilities would be new and unheard of.

Never forget that certain characters may be adopting a cover identity, hiding something or lying to you, be it the Hokage or an Academy student. If your character has been given no reason to suspect this then he/she should act as if he remains ignorant of the fact. A good example of this would be if Hailstorm’s Character Hayate actually introduced himself as Bob to whomever he met. Unless you have recourse to doubt him which unless you know his real name seems unlikely, your character would think of him as Bob and should call him such until the point they know better. Similarly if your superior tells you to meet up one but intends much like Kakashi to turn up 3 hours late a diligent genin will turn up on time. The more skilled the Nin and the more practise they have the more believable the lie. Consider this in light of a Jounin Sensei being deliberately late its highly unbelievable that one of his genin students would expect him to be lying and know to arrive 3 hours late. Keeping something known OOC that is in IC secret requires certain amount forethought. Much like an assumption of ignorance, one should always assume that someone is telling the truth unless you have good reason to suspect otherwise or your character possess a suspicious nature.

Deathmatches are allowed and can happen at any time, in almost any location. If you want a topic NOT to become a deathmatch, put [No Killing] in the title. Similarly, you can put [No Fighting]; [Deathmatch] or other requirements in your topic title.

When performing a technique in roleplay, please put the technique details (as on your character application) at the bottom of your post so that other participants can see and understand what you have done and how dangerous it is. To prevent metagaming hidden techniques that the user would not see or Genjutsu may be PMed to the moderator of the topic. Thus the user will place “PM to mod” where the jutsu would otherwise go.

It is very possible for acts of nature to happen within the game. Should a character get too out of hand and the individual controlling the character get too Hostile, the administration reserves the right to use nature against the character. If the individual has created a technique that has extended beyond that which was originally intended and approved by staff, the administration can quite literally say "Your character seems to have forgotten ____ technique.". Please, play fairly and appropriately. We are a Naruto RPG site designed for fun, not for people who are too chaotic to be trusted and allowed to Roleplay properly.

God-Modding:

Like metagamming, GMing, also known as "God-Modding", has been a very large problem at hand in the past. In order to make sure that this does not happen again, the Staff will be vigilant in their efforts to make sure that this problem does not arise again. God-Modding is when a character does something illogical and/or abuses abilities that their character possess to make them seem "God-like" hence the term "God-Modding". As such, anyone that is reported to have God-Modded or been caught in the act of doing so will be dealt with accordingly.

God-Modding:

Here are a few random examples (they are not taken from anywhere on site, this is not an exercise to point out peoples RP skills, which take time to develop after all):

In a Standard RP Context

(Example One): A character runs in to an enemy he cannot hope to defeat. Next post he claims to kill the enemy in a blink of an eye without even losing a heart beat.

(Example Two): Your character is taken captive and thrown in prison. Next they go claim to have walked out of the prison after beating the guards with nary a scratch

In a Naruto RP Context

Dodging every attack thrown at you in a fight whatever the likelihood of you being able to do thisNot just saying you threw a kunai at his heart but then say which you subsequently struck killing your foe when fighting a PCSome how being immune to lethal poison you have never come into contact with before and you app mentions nothing about being poison resistant

God Modding is often simpler to do then you might realise. Every time you post the actions of another without their consent or the results of your attacks such as your fireball striking your foe your God Modding whether you realise this or not. The easy way to avoid this is to never post for other PC’s without their explicit permission and never post for the results of your attacks. Its fine to throw a fireball towards someone quite another thing to say it hits them.

When dealing with Jutsu bare in mind that any Jutsu has the possibility of being reversed and absolutely no Jutsu has so much power that it is impossible for any opponent to counter it. It may extremely hard for a academy student to avoid dying at the hands of a S Rank technique but it may be possible. That said it is just as bad to constantly completely avoid your opponent's attacks. Most battles especially between similarly ranked Nins are close and bloody affairs and avoiding injury or where it is clearly bound to happen death

Similarly all Jutsu used must be mentioned at the time of use. Claiming to have used a Jutsu at later point when no evidence exists in the former posts is God modding. Spamming attack's that would normally cost you an insane amount of chakra is also another form of God Modding. Using Jutsu costs chakra which is a finite resource after all. Over using Jutsu will deplete ones reserves and lead to Charka exhaustion.

The Combat Basic Rule:This is a straightforward, basic, and short rule that is not to be broken. This rule also, in a sense, is an extension of the metagaming and god-modding rules, but it is put in a more practical sense. This rule dictates the most basic rule of RP combat that has been used, unwritten or written, throughout NU history: that is the rule that anyone participating in RP combat has to write anything and everything they do. This may seem self explanatory rule to many, but to others, possibly those coming into the site with no experience in combat RP, it is something to take into account. This rule means that every action your character takes must be described, whether it is making a clone and then hiding it behind a tree where it is to wait for a surprise, or throwing a kunai with an explosive tag on it, you must write in your actions. This means that you cannot pull the old "my clone was waiting there, you just didn't know about it, and this has been my plan all along" as we see in the anime so many times, repeated over and over again. Instead, you have to describe the process by which you make the clone, as well as the process by which you hide the clone. Metagaming rules fight against your opponent automatically knowing that you made a clone, as well as using OOC knowledge to keep their character safe from the clone - the clone is just a classic example. This means, using the kunai example, one would have to describe the process of attaching the explosive note to the kunai, or, in the case of having a kunai that was already attached to an explosive note, just that; this means that you would write "Your character pulls out a kunai from his back pouch, and explosive note attached to it's handle already, before throwing it." This is done in order to be clear with your actions. If your explosive note is hidden in some way, say, by wrapping it around the handle, you still have to write that in; if the opponent claims to see something that is well hidden, or is obviously only seeing something due to the fact that he or she knows about it out of character (OOC), then staff can intervene and make a ruling in order to bring the situation to justice.

The Basic Specification Rule:This is an extremely basic rule, and it pretty much dictates that specification, in most cases, is a first-come-first-serve thing. When I talk about specification, I am talking of course about the IC world that is created within every topic and post. Specifications include the time of day, the layout of the land, the number of people around you, etc. Should someone in your post fail to mention this, that, or the other thing, then you have the ability to mention it, and make it as you want. For instance, if someone posts a topic and talks about how happy their character is walking down the street, but says nothing about if it is day time or night time, feel free to add that in with your post. In combat, this can also be useful to know about, seeing as distances, colors, anything like that can be specified. If someone talks about a building, but never states how far away it is specifically, you have the right to specify that. This rule is made in order to clarify things, not in order to gain military advantage over another person, and if this rule is abused staff will intervene and call it. This is meant to add clarity, fun, and logic to a topic, not to suddenly switch something around, and make something illogical just because you have the ability to - because you don't and don't think you do. Individuals abusing this rule will be warned once, and if they have to be warned again, they may receive a ban, depending on the severity of the offense. Just don't go there at all; use this rule to best of your ability, being fair, fun, and honest, and you should be good.

The Posting Order Rules:These are important, even though they are basic. This set of rules is to be followed all of the time, no matter what. These rules dictate and explain the basic combat posting order - as well as, in most cases, normal/social RP posting order; although social RP's posting order can change, and is more flexible as long as it is okay with the participants. This rule states that there shall be a posting order in every combat topic. Obviously, the person that posts in the topic first is the first poster of that topic. Obviously, the person the posts second, is the second poster in that topic. Can you see a pattern? Good. Let's take a combat topic with only two people for the first example. First person makes a post. Second person makes a post. Not it is the first person's turn to make a post. And the pattern repeats. If someone wants to add themselves into the fight topic, and it is okay for them to enter, then they can enter whenever they want - here is how the posting order changes: Let's say this third person adds themselves after the first person posted again, but before the second person posted again. If that is the case, then their order in the posting order is made to be after the first poster posts, and before the original second poster posts. If a fourth person wants to join, and is allowed to join, then they follow the same pattern. If they post their entrance, for example, after the third person (the original second poster), but before it loops around again to go back to the first poster, then that is where they enter the posting order, posting after the third poster, and before the first poster. Leaving the topic works in the same way, simply filling in the gap - pretty self explanatory.

Now that you have a pretty good sense of how the posting order works, as well as how to amend the posting order as individuals come and go, I will give you the more specific rule, and something that should be paid close attention in a combat RP. This is what happens when a post is skipped by someone; in short, try not to make this happen, seeing as it can be very detrimental. After a posting order is established, it is to be followed. Should someone post before it is their turn to post, they have pretty much said that, no matter what is done in the post previous to this, their character does what they are shone to do in the post that they made. Ill give you an example; let's use a combat RP topic that has three people in it for the example. For this example, we will say that the three posters are well into the topic, and the combat is heated and dangerous. If poster B posts before poster A, then poster A gets one free post where he/she can make his character do whatever he/she wants while poster B cannot dodge or react, seeing as they have already done that. To further the example: lets say that poster B posts before poster A, stating that he/she stood still, throwing a kunai before making a bunshin clone. Poster A would be able to attack, avoiding the kunai, and attacking poster B without fail, since poster B is unable to post a dodge to poster A's attack. For more clarity on this, ask a staff member, should it be needed. This rule can/should be avoided - just post in the posting order without fail, and you should be good. If you were simply confused, and it is okay with the other participants of the topic that you simply delete your post, then that is fine, you can go right ahead, and move on as if nothing happened. What is more, if you were simply confused, possibly you are new, and you made a slip up, posting before it was your turn, talk to staff about it - chances are they will rule in favor of you simply deleting the post and moving on. It is only enforced when the rule is broken on purpose for whatever reason. Read this guide, follow the rules posted here, and be friendly and you should be grand.

StatisticsLimitsAmounts

Ranks. Ranks are sort of a broad umbrella term which state the difference in power between different people and shinobi. However, within each rank, there are differences that constitute to the difference in power. Among these are speeds, strengths, durability, basic combat levels, and other things like basic carrying capacity. Below are a set of guides that will show you how fast ninjas of each rank, how strong a ninja is at each rank, and how many of what kinds of basic weapons a ninja can have by default at each rank.

Speed Through The Ranks:This is the over all speed of the shinobi through the ranks. This refers to not only their basic movement speeds, like running at top speeds, but is also loosely related to their bodily speed. Obviously someone with a higher speed is going to be able to throw a faster punch than someone with a lower speed. As a note, taijutsu users add two miles onto each of these speeds, making twelve miles an hour for genin into fourteen miles and hour for a taijutsu genin; this only applies if taijutsu is the main specialty of the ninja.

Strength Through The Ranks:This refers to the power behind a shinobi. This is measure in pounds, by the amount of weight that they can lift. Although this does not directly transfer into the power behind a punch, it helps secure some kind of ball park guess. Because of this, someone with a higher strength can obviously throw a more powerful punch. All shinobi with taijutsu main add ten pounds onto their maximum weight able to lift; this brings one hundred and seventy pounds at genin into one hundred and eighty pounds possible to lift.

Durability Through The Ranks:This refers to the basic damage reduction that each shinobi has acquired through the years of training. This also refers to stamina levels of the shinobi, and their ability to continue fighting. This is measured by general description, used to give you a feel of what about your ninja can take. Keep in mind that shinobi with taijutsu main are a full five percent closer to the next higher rank than other shinobi; this means that, while normally a chuunin is 70% higher in durability than a genin, a chuunin would only be 65% higher in durability than a genin with taijutsu main.

Genin | C Rank:You, despite your age, are about as durable as a fully grown adult. Training has hardened your muscles slightly, and you have taken multiple hits throughout your life. You know what pain tastes like, you have handled it before, but that does not mean your body can shrug it off. As previously stated, you have about the same endurance as a full grown adult. What is more, through all of the training that you have devoted your life to, you have gained a stamina that is similar to an extremely athletic adult, very in shape. Genin are about 70% lower in basic endurance than an average chuunin. This means that percents added to a genin's stats, in the case of special characteristics, specializations, or even jutsu, will bring you closer and closer to the endurance level of the next rank's durability.

Chuunin | B Rank:More and more training has left you slightly more resilient to damage than those of the genin rank. While you still are human, after all, you have gained more and more experience with pain. Your body can shrug off more damage, and with enough inner convincing, you can pick yourself back up after taking hits, in order to accomplish what it is that you are trying to accomplish. This does not mean you can shrug off anything lethal, and you will still drop after awhile of beating. In essence, you can take a hit, and get back up a couple times. Your stamina is slightly above what could be compared to in normal human standards. You can run long distances, and continue to fight after you are tired. Chuunin are considered to have an endurance of 70% higher than a genin. This means that percents added to this, in the case of special characteristics, specializations, or even jutsu, will bring you closer and closer to the endurance level of the next rank's durability.

Jounin | A Rank: You have joined the elite. You are no longer able to be compared to a normal human on a standard basis. Your endurance levels, as well as stamina levels, sore high above that of an average adult human. You are less prone to damage, almost resistant to damage, in fact. Years of training in combat have left you with great experience, as well as with ample taste of what real pain feels like. Your stamina almost knows no end, and you can run for extremely long distances, continuing to fight well beyond a normal human's peek. You are close to the top. Able to continue fighting even after large amounts of damage, and having the ability to push yourself beyond what might kill those of lower ranks, you are at the pinnacle of your performance. Most ninja do not get above this level in their lives, and for most, this marks the top. Whether it is being propelled into a rock wall, or blown backwards into a thick tree, you are able to pick yourself back up, and continue fighting; however you are hardly invincible. Jounin are considered to have an endurance of 100% higher than a chuunin. This means that percents added to this, in the case of special characteristics, specializations, or even jutsu, will bring you closer and closer to the endurance level of the next rank's durability.

Kage/Sannin | S Rank:You are at the top. You are still human, but you are close to something else. While you can still be defeated, you are literally at the top of the latter. While this is not too much of a jump from the jounin ranks, this marks the point at which you cannot receive more endurance and stamina naturally (unless through the use of special characteristics). You can take hits that would prove extremely damaging in the lower ranks, and continue fighting. Of course you will feel it, but you will push past it. Cuts from kunai and shuriken hurt, of course, but can only start to be a problem in larger numbers; but for the most part, these kinds of injuries are not a main concern. Your stamina knows almost no ends, and you can run for as long as you need to run. Fighting for hours can be done. Fighting for days can be done on rare occasion. Taking a punch from your average adult would feel like a slight tickle. Kage or Sannin are considered to have an endurance of 70% higher than a jounin. This means that percents added to this, in the case of special characteristics, specializations, or even jutsu, will bring you closer and closer to the ultimate peek of durability.

Weapon Throwing Distance Through The Ranks:This is really basic. Pretty much, this describes the distances at which a genin, chuunin, jounin, or elite ranked ninja can throw their basic weaponry. When I refer to basic weaponry, I am of course referring to kunai, shuriken, and senbon. Other basic weaponry exists, but they are not generally thrown unless you are getting creative - at which point I'll let you and staff determine that when it happens. This should be enough to cover the basics, and give you an idea of how far someone through the ranks can throw something. As a general note, this goes along with strengths posted above. Keep in mind that all weaponry users add an additional two meters to all posted ranges here.